Walz: Minnesota will take Trump administration to court if it sends troops

Minnesota is ready to take the Trump administration to court if the president sends military forces here like he has to Chicago and other cities.

Gov. Tim Walz, who served in the National Guard for 24 years, told reporters this week he already is trying to map out what a possible federal mobilization would look like and is working with Attorney General Keith Ellison to assess the state’s rights in such a scenario.

The DFL governor said he’s preparing for the possible deployment of troops from other states into the Twin Cities and is working to understand how the chain of command would work.

“If they do use federal troops, which [President Donald Trump] can attempt to do, we will challenge you in court. If he tries to use the Insurrection Act, we will challenge that,” Walz said.

And if Trump forges ahead with a deployment anyway, Walz said Minnesota will be ready to make sure “chaos doesn’t reign.”

“Minnesotans are going to go about their work. We’re going to continue to not play into and give them photo opportunities,” he said.

Illinois and Oregon have sued to stop Trump’s attempts to deploy military forces to Chicago and Portland. Both states faced off with federal government lawyers in court Thursday.

“We’re reviewing all possible legal strategies, we’re in regular contact with the states going through this now and we’ll be ready to uphold the law, including the Posse Comitatus Act of 1878 that bars the president from using the military as a police force,” he said.

Ellison expressed concern earlier this week about Trump’s suggestion to military leaders that they need to combat the “invasion from within” and “use some of these dangerous cities as training grounds for our military.”

“The bottom line is, friends, is that when the president starts siccing the military on the people, there’s a word for that,” Ellison said in a video posted Wednesday. “It’s tyranny.”

Trump has said the troops are needed to crack down on crime and protect federal immigration officers in major cities.

Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker has accused Trump of “breaching the Constitution and breaking the law.” Both Walz and Pritzker said this week they believe they could be jailed by the administration.

During a conversation at the Minnesota Star Tribune’s North Star Summit on Tuesday, Pritzker described the confusion that cities like Chicago face when troops are federalized against their will. In Chicago, Pritzker said the city’s Police Department, suburban police departments and the Sheriff’s Office aren’t being told anything about the military forces’ operations.